THE LAZY PERSON'S GUIDE TO PRODUCTIVITY
3 MARCH 2023 (12 MIN READ)
“The Tao does nothing, and yet nothing remains undone.” - Lao Tzu
This quote is as equally powerful as it is seemingly stupid and pretentious. In terms of the silliness, if you tell the average person that they can do nothing and still get things done, then they would either be clobbered with deep confusion or pass you off as a dumb pseudo-intellectual. In order to bypass this understandable confusion and ridicule, this article will dedicate itself to unpacking the key concept in this quotation—that productivity does not necessarily require the stressful energy of doing. Additionally, you can get things done from the same energy that you do nothing with. It’s actually in that energy of nothingness that things can get most effectively done.
This out-of-the-box belief is predicated by the fact that the pressure to do something and succeed is what can actually destroy productivity in the first place. For some, that pressure gets them motivated to start grinding hard every day, but for most, that same pressure can become so overwhelming that it seems safer to just give up. Even for those who use that pressure for motivation, they are likely to experience burnout and depressive episodes, since that stress from the perceived pressure can overwhelm the nervous system, leading to frequent crashes. And when it comes to the depressive episodes, if you feel an intense pressure to succeed, then you are using work as a vehicle to receive validation that you can’t give yourself. Although you may get some praise through the work, it’ll quickly become a black hole of external validation that will never be enough to satiate your pain, landing you in a perpetual depressed spot where you need an ever-increasing amount of clicks or dollars to feel whole. In combination, whether it be using the pressure of doing for motivation or becoming so terrified of it that nothing can get done, the popular vehicle for doing in society is not getting the doing effectively done.
But what’s the alternative? Working for the work's sake, without attaching any expectations or pressures to succeed. Just showing up in a state of being, and continuing that being while doing. You basically want to carry through that sensation of comfort and ease when you’re being lazy to the work you’re doing.
WORKING FROM A PLACE OF NOTHING
To accurately depict what working from nothing looks like, let’s paint a picture of the opposite. Consider the story of Fred, a young aspiring writer who dreams every day of having his novel touch the hearts of masses of people, gaining respect and validity as a charming intellectual who is worthy of praise. In reality, Fred is painfully shy, a highly perceptive cat who sits in the corner of the room and accurately describes the essence of everyone around him. Due to this skill, it’s hard for him to get out there and properly connect with people, because he cannot escape this self-absorbed tendency to write off people based on his judgments and get to know them. He also desires praise and acceptance so much that he fears his shy astuteness will push away more people than it attracts. Due to these self-imposed constraints, Fred lives a life of lonely contemplation, where he knows he is smarter than most, but he also knows it’s doing him more harm than good. His road to escape all this is to write a novel where he is the protagonist, forcing readers to take a deep dive into his mind and discover its beautiful intricacies, without him having to put himself out there. In other words, through writing a successful novel, he believes that he will finally bypass his loneliness and gain the respect he feels he deserves for his unique mind. Consequently, writing the book has little to do with the writing itself, but more so creating an outlet to remove what hurts the most in his life: not being seen in the way he desires to be seen.
Put yourself in Fred’s shoes whenever he feels the call to start writing, feel all that stress to overcome that depressing part of his life, pay attention to the self-deprecating thoughts that come with potentially having the book be a flop, and become familiar with the panging butterflies in his stomach that won’t go away. Would it be easier to feel all of this? Or to put the writing aside and hold on to the idea of the novel as a scapegoat to not deal with the pain of not feeling like enough? It’s easier to avoid it at all costs. And even if it’s not avoided, the work itself will be a stressful stretch of time that will be brutally painful, minimizing the effectiveness of the work and creating an energy of distaste towards it. This may sound overly simple, but the opposite of this strategy is the way to go: feeling a calling to write a novel and deciding to write it. This decision would have no attachment to outcomes, would not be fueled by a feeling of not being enough, and most importantly, would be devoid of any pressure that would lead to the energy of doing.
Picture yourself on the sofa, with your favorite reality TV show on. All your worries are out the window and you are thoroughly enjoying feeling like a potato. In theory, you’re still doing something in the form of watching television, but you are doing it with the energy of being. Because of the lack of pressure to watch the episode as fast as possible or to take detailed notes, you can do the activity without any stress. When you’re in this space, you can actually taste the thing in front of you with joy. You can show up as yourself. You can pay closer attention for longer periods of time without burning out. Who’s to say that this same strategy can’t be applied to work? Going back to the example of writing, what actually creates the pressure? Is it the writing or is it the voices in your mind that create illusions, such as the fear of failure or not getting it done fast enough? It’s the illusions. If you remove the fearful illusions and show up with that same energy you sit on the sofa with, then you enter the space of doing something without actually doing anything, like you do when you’re watching television or playing video games. And when you work from this space, working stops feeling like work.
But how can we escape these illusions we create for ourselves while doing? And how can we effectively alchemize the energy of nothingness into something beautiful?
BECOMING NOTHING
In order to enter the space of nothingness, a certain kind of nihilism will have to be embraced. Although that may sound like the worst, most morbid advice ever, please hear me out. Nihilists believe that life itself has no inherent meaning, and that all moral and ethical values have no real evidence to them. In other words, why should you feel like you have a purpose in life if there is no purpose to be had? However, although I don’t disagree with this sentiment, believing this life philosophy wholeheartedly will land you in a pretty dark spot, where you remain in a pit of despair and victimhood. Putting a little bit of a positive spin on this philosophy, consider the argument of existential nihilism, which focuses on creating joy and fulfillment in life, even though there is no inherent meaning or purpose to it. Rather than believing that meaning is something inherent, existential nihilism suggests it’s something we build for ourselves through our actions. This is where working from a space of nothingness comes in.
Since nothing really fucking matters in life, but we know we have to make something matter in order to not jump off a bridge, we can choose to engage in actions knowing they don’t really matter in the grand scheme of things, but matter for us in the present moment. And “matter” does not suggest this anxiety-inducing purpose of needing to be famous, but rather choosing to engage in something rewarding, instead of lying down in a dark room all day thinking woe is me. For example, if Fred in the previous example didn’t have this need to be a well-respected intellectual to soothe his wounding, but rather realized we’re all fucked up humans who are searching for a sliver of belonging no matter where we stand on the social hierarchy, he will quickly see that this big dream of being a successful novelist doesn’t actually mean anything and won’t change anything internally once he gets there. Although this realization will lead to an inevitable depression for a bit, he will eventually see that what actually matters is him focusing on a task in the present moment that leads to a form of internal fulfillment. If we remove the expectations of a specific result, such as being perceived in a certain way, because we know none of that matters, then what we get to focus on is just the task itself in the present moment. With this perspective, we get to be with the task in the process, not just anxiously doing it to fill an emotional hole in ourselves. And in this being, real internal meaning is created for that beautiful moment.
On a less intellectual tangent, it’s important to note what our bodies need to be able to enter a space of nothingness on a somatic level. There’s a big difference between thinking you are presently relaxed with the task and actually feeling that way. To prime my body and mind to embrace the energy of the nothingness, I’ll stretch out or foam roll my body, and go into a meditation for about 10-20 minutes. Within the meditation, I’ll exhale for twice as long as I inhale, which activates the parasympathetic nervous system, a division of your autonomic nervous system that’s responsible for slowing down the body and entering a state of relaxation. I will also try to locate the part of me who’s looking at my thoughts and remain in that state, allowing whatever arises to come and not control it. Eventually, I’ll reach a point where I feel that I’m able to embrace the beauty of nothingness and take that to the task I feel called to be present with. And once I enter a flow state with that task, things will actually get done while feeling like I’m doing absolutely nothing.
FLOW STATE
If you have ever been in a flow state, then you are familiar with this feeling I’m talking about: gliding with the task effortlessly, while producing a large output. Due to this reality, flow state is the epitome of getting a lot done while feeling like you are not only doing nothing, but you are nothing. To get to a flow state, you have to go through a sort of ego death, where the only thing that exists is the task itself. There is no “you” or “work” in the equation, it’s just happening in the moment. The minute you start worrying about an attachment to the work, such as how fast it can get done or the potential outcome of the task, such as gaining fame, flow state will quickly leave your fingertips, as the ego becomes part of the equation. And that’s due to the fact that you have lost the energy of nothingness. Isn’t it interesting how everyone wants to get into a flow state to do as much work as possible, but flow state itself symbolizes the energy of nothingness? We are all desperately trying to reach a form of productivity that has us feeling like we’re doing nothing, bringing that energy of doing to one that symbolizes pure being. It’s highly counterintuitive, which is why so many people struggle to reach flow states.
Whether it be an expert carpenter, a well-established writer, or a badass mechanic, you can see people who have mastered a form of work quickly enter this state where things just magically happen without much effort. Yes, practice definitely plays a huge role in these cases, but it's more so a developed mindset where they have nothing to prove. They feel no pressure to perform because they know they just perform as they are. They show up with the energy of nothingness and quickly become the task itself. I believe that we can all master tasks much faster the closer we get to that mentality, where we are doing the task for the task’s sake, not criticizing ourselves, or having attachments to what the task will eventually lead to. And that’s because we will enter flow states faster, creating better work and more of it too.
Beyond the philosophy of existential nihilism and how that philosophical perspective of nothingness leads to flow states, there are some practical elements to the lazy person’s guide to productivity that deserve to get mentioned.
PRACTICAL TIPS
Consider this magical question, one that epitomizes the laziest way to get the most possible work done: what’s the least I can do every day to get the task done? In terms of this article, I write one about this long, usually longer every week. I also am a full-time podcaster, I manage a team of people who work for me, I read about a book a week, I handle a constant barrage of business emails and logistical annoyances, as well as putting together something that resembles a not-too-dysfunctional social life outside of that. The only way I get this done is applying that question to each avenue of my work life. For example, when it comes to the article, I split it into seven individual components that each take about an hour of work. I cut off an hour every morning to get it done. In terms of the split, there are 5 sections in each article I write, which I get done Monday through Friday. Saturday I proofread the article and Sunday I summarize the article into concept squares to market it on social media. And each week, I have a whole article done and marketed with me only putting in a measly hour a day. Zooming out even further, I now have over 75 long-form articles on my website, having started this journey only fairly recently. Apply this philosophy to anything you want to get done on a weekly basis and I swear it will become so much easier to get done. Again, the overwhelm of the task is what creates the resistance to do the work. But when you see an incredibly easy way through, the stress dissipates and you can calmly engage with a little portion each day, which eventually adds up to a lot.
Lastly, stop depending on motivation to get things done. Motivation is too fleeting to be dependent on as the sole reason to get things done. To add reasoning to the uselessness of motivation, by applying the philosophy of working from a place of nothingness, being unmotivated actually becomes the best space to work from, because you embody the lazy energy that your work will benefit the most from. The less stressed out I am and the less motivation I have to do something, the more I know the work will benefit from it, as I have much less expectations of outcomes and put less pressure on myself to perform, so I end up falling into flow states faster.
